the Ancestors & Descendants of John A. Adams

Descendants of Robert Adams: Generation 10

April 19, 2010

Henry Shaw24 Adams (John Frederick23, John22, Joseph Henry21, John20, JOHN19, ISRAEL18, SARAH17, ABRAHAM16, ROBERT15, ROBERT14, RICHARD13,JOHN12, JOHN11,JOHN10, THOMAS9, ROGER8,JOHN AP7,JOHN AP6, THOMAS AP5,JOHN AP4, WILLIAM AP3,JOHN AP2,JOHN AP1) was born 09 June 1877 in Haverhill, Essex, MA and died 09 July 1962 in Chester, SC. He married Marie Clifford 21 September 1909 in Union, South Carolina, daughter of John Clifford and Mary Schofield. She was born 09 January 1881 in Union, South Carolina and died 06 June 1950 in Chester, South Carolina.

Notes for Henry Shaw Adams: From letters of Henry Shaw Adams 1960, 1961, 1962 and information supplied by Amie Batcheller Kelly Adams in her handwriting, in the file of Gareldine A. Adams, Albuquerque, NM. Henry was named for a family friend, Henry Southworth Shaw. For many years before his retirement, Mr. Adams was a vice president of the Springmaid Cotton Mills in Chester, South Carolina, where he lived in a lovely ‘Southern’ home.

Children of HenryAdams and Marie Clifford are:

i.

Henry Shaw25 Adams, Jr., b. 20 May 1911, Union, South Carolina; d. 13 February 1986, Granby, CT; m. Virginia Belknap, 07 September 1940; b. 16 October 1916 Notes for Henry Shaw Adams, Jr.:From the local paper in Granby, CT: “Henry S. Adams, 74, of 19 Intervale Road, Granby, CT, died Thursday (February 13) at a local nursing home. Born in Chester, SC, lived in Avon, moving to Granby 2 years ago. Graduated from Antioch College in 1932 and was employed by IBM in New York 9 years where he met and married his wife, Virginia. During World War II, he was employed by Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Division of United Technology, East Hartford, retiring in 1976 after 29 years, from the Emhart Corporation., then in Bloomfield where he was a supervisor of the data processing department. An avid tennis player, he was a member of the Granby Tennis Club and for many years was active with the Boy Scouts of America in Granby. He leaves his wife, Virginia.”

Elizabeth Rand24 Adams (John Frederick23, John22, Joseph Henry21, John20, JOHN19, ISRAEL18, SARAH17, ABRAHAM16, ROBERT15, ROBERT14, RICHARD13,JOHN12, JOHN11,JOHN10, THOMAS9, ROGER8,JOHN AP7,JOHN AP6, THOMAS AP5,JOHN AP4, WILLIAM AP3,JOHN AP2,JOHN AP1) was born 21 January 1879 in Haverhill, Essex, MA and died 28 March 1968 in Plainfield, NJ. She married Fred J. Cox 10 October 1905 in Haverhill, MA; son of Charles Cox and Ann Trask. He was born 25 September 1880 in Maine, and died 08 February 1958 in Plainfield, NJ.

Notes for Elizabeth RandAdams: Information about this family was supplied by Elizabeth Adams Cox. The letters with this information are in the possession of Gareldine Adams, Albuquerque, NM. She taught cooking in the Haverhill schools before her marriage (1904).

Notes for Fred J. Cox: President of the Boynton Bros. Insurance Company of Perth Amboy, New Jersey at the time of his death. He was a Civil War Buff and directed that his ashes be scattered over Gettysburg National Battlefield in Pennsylvania.

John Amos24 Adams (John Frederick23, John22, Joseph Henry21, John20, JOHN19, ISRAEL18, SARAH17, ABRAHAM16, ROBERT15, ROBERT14, RICHARD13,JOHN12, JOHN11,JOHN10, THOMAS9, ROGER8,JOHN AP7,JOHN AP6, THOMAS AP5,JOHN AP4, WILLIAM AP3,JOHN AP2,JOHN AP1) was born 10 January 1883 in Haverhill, Essex, MA, and died 27 July 1968 in Albuquerque, Bernalillo, NM. He married Helen Belle Shields 16 July 1914 in Albuquerque, Bernalillo, NM; daughter of John Shields and Isabella Leech. She was born 31 May 1891 in Jemez Pueblo, Sandoval, NM and died 07 January 1980 in Albuquerque, Bernalillo, NM.

Notes for John AmosAdams: BIOGRAPHY: Notes from John A. Adams, Frederick S. Adams.

DEATH: Certificate in possession of Gareldine Adams.

John was named for his father and his maternal grandfather, Amos S. Kelly. Raised and educated in Haverhill where the family resided at 35 Highland Avenue and No. 7 Richmond Street. Both these houses are still standing and in good condition. The people who now own No. 35 Highland took Gareldine & Fred S. Adams on a tour of it in the summer of 1983. They are attempting to refurbish it in the style of 1883 when the house was built.

Mr. Adams graduated from Haverhill High School and attended Harvard College, but did not graduate from there.

The house at 21 Windsor Street, where John and Helen Adams lived when their son, Frederick, was born is still standing and in good condition.

His early employment included work in Haverhill as a clerk and draughtsman. Other employment over the years included working at a General Electric company of Schenectady, NY; The Lewis Fales Company of Walpole, MA; Western Electric Co., Chicago, IL; American Brass Co. of Waterbury, CT; Haverhill National Bank, where his father had worked before him, and the Newport News Ship Building and Dry Dock Co. of Newport News, VA during WWI. Hard times of 1907 found him unemployed and jobs were scarce. Through a family friend, Ira A. Abbott, of Haverhill, who had been appointed Territorial Judge in Albuquerque, Territory of New Mexico, he learned of the opportunities in the West and was encouraged to go to New Mexico.

Early in 1908, he traveled to the Territory and landed a job doing ranch work on a ranch on the east slope of the Magdalena Mountains. After a short time, he returned to Albuquerque and got a job with a sheep outfit run by Evan Vogt and financed by Mr. Tabor, who ran a store in Glorietta. He spent the winter with a band of sheep west of Albuquerque in the Rio Puerco country and when the sheep were brought to the Rio Grande Valley near Albuquerque (now known as Corrales), he took advantage of this to take a government examination for Forest Ranger.

While waiting a call for employment, he returned to Chicago to work for Western Electric Co. He shortly received notice that an opening was available and returned to the West to enter the Forest Service as a Forest Guard on the Tonto National Forest in May of 1909. The following year, he was assigned to the Experiment Station at Fort Valley, Arizona and in the fall of 1910 was assigned as assistant Ranger on the Coconino National Forest. The next few years brought assignments on the Tusayan (later to be named Kaibab), Sitgreaves, Tonto, Apache and Coconino National Forest of Arizona and the Arkansas National Forest. Much of his work during this time was devoted to surveys and map compilation, as well as timber surveys and routine administrative work.

One of his interesting recollections of experiences while doing survey work on the Arkansas National Forest was of finding corner stakes which had been set by George Washington. These stakes were approximately three inches square, of cedar, and marked with the initials ‘G.W.’. During this work in Arkansas, Mr. Adams’ party had copies of Washington’s original notes, which they used to re-trace the early survey.

In April of 1912, he was assigned to the Jemez National Forest of New Mexico in charge of a reconnaissance party making maps, logging reports and timber estimates. It was during this assignment that he met Helen Belle Shields, daughter of Dr. John M. Shields, a medical missionary for the Presbyterian Church at Jemez Springs. John Adams and Helen Shields were married on 06 July 1914 at the First Presbyterian Church, Albuquerque, NM by the Reverend Hugh A. Cooper.

The spring of 1914 brought assignments on the Carson and Prescott National Forests of Arizona and promotion to Deputy Forest Supervisor of the Apache national Forest in Springerville, AZ. In the fall of 1918, as the outcome of his disagreement with general policy and a desire to return to the East, he moved his family to Haverhill, MA and lived at No. 21 Windsor Street. He is listed in the Haverhill City Directory of 1919 as a clerk at the City Five Cents Savings Bank. He went to work for the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. However, within six months it was obvious that this was not the life for them and in June of 1919, they returned to Arizona where he was assigned as a Forest Ranger at the Mormon Lake Ranger station 25 miles southeast of Flagstaff.

Mr. Adams recalls that when he left to go East, he had left his horse in Springerville with the Beckers, owners and operators of the General merchandise stores in the New Mexico and Arizona Territories, and upon his return to Arizona, he traveled to Springerville and rode his horse back to Mormon Lake – a trip of 130 miles as the crow flies, but considerably longer and more arduous over this rough country on a horse.

After this brief trip to the East, he continued his career with the Forest Service until retirement. He served as Deputy Supervisor for the Coconino, Flagstaff, AZ; Supervisor of the Manzano and Cibola National Forest, Albuquerque, NM; represented the Forest Service as a member of the interdepartmental Rio Grande Committee, spending much of his time in Washington, D.C. during assignment. Following this, he worked several years until retirement in Recreation and Lands under the Regional Forester with headquarters in Albuquerque.

He retired from the Forest Service in 1946, after a career spanning 37 years of Forestry and devoted the years until his death to active interest in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. He is buried next to his wife in the Jemez Community Presbyterian Church cemetery in Jemez Springs, NM.

Notes for Helen Belle Shields: She was born at the Jemez Indian Pueblo, Jemez, New Mexico, where her father was a medical missionary. At one time, she was postmistress in the town of Jemez Springs (then called, Perea, NM). Helen attended a private girl’s high school in Santa Fe, NM, along with her sister, Bessie. The school was started by Martha Allison who came from the same town in PA as Dr. Shields. Helen was fluent in both Spanish and Tewa, the language of the Jemez Pueblo. After her marriage, she lived in Springerville and Tucson, AZ and later in Albuquerque, NM.

Until the death of her husband, they had a summer home in Jemez Springs and all her grandchildren enjoyed spending summer vacations with them. Helen played the organ for many years each Sunday in the little church her father established. She started playing for the church at the age of 11.

BIRTH/DEATH: Birth recorded in the Bible of Isabelle Ruhama (Leech) Shields, in possession of Frederick S. Adams, Sr., Albuquerque, NM. Death certificate also in possession of Frederick S. Adams, Sr.

Edward MiltonAdams, b. 13 October 1917, Springerville, Greenlee, AZ; d. 20 October 1917, Springerville, Greenlee, AZ Notes for Edward Milton Adams: His birth is recorded in the Bible of Helen Belle Shields Adams, in the possession of Frederick Shields Adams of Albuquerque. No trace of a grave in Springerville, AZ has been found.

Thank you for the additional link to information on the highly debated accuracy of any ancestral link between the American Adams families and John Ap Adam. William Covington himself contacted me via this blog in 2010 (here) and supplied much of the same information. Unfortunately, I have had to set my work on this genealogical topic aside for the last few years after our triplets were born in 2011.

However, I do think it’s important to give this subject consideration and critical research. As someone who is picking up someone else’s life work, I do not have first-hand knowledge of the references for or against either argument, so I am slowly having to re-investigate the whole matter from scratch in Seattle, WA, far from access to many of the stated sources.

Also, although Mr. Covington appears extremely well-versed in the subject, his relationship to the matter is unclear. Is he a hobbyist? A professional genealogist? A representative of the Heraldry Society or other heraldic organization? I do not know. But as someone who appears to be presenting themselves as an authority, I believe it is just as relevant to verify that as the information he is espousing.

Lastly, while it does sound very cool to know whether or not my genealogy has any far-reaching connections to a great English family and European history, I find that much less interesting or relevant than the proven connections to our own American history. I care far more about the traditions, values and hardships overcome that have endured and continue to shape us for generations.